


Beyond the Void

by HandmaidenOfHorror



Category: Lamento -BEYOND THE VOID-
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Epistolary, Gen, Post-Canon, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:36:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24470683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HandmaidenOfHorror/pseuds/HandmaidenOfHorror
Summary: After the Void disappeared, Sisa prospered and the Ribika started to explore territories beyond their home land. When news broke of a new large land being discovered to the north, full of fantastic treasures, Konoe joins the expedition to the new world. This is the letter he sent his lover after returning.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4
Collections: Unconventional Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Beyond the Void

**Author's Note:**

  * For [izayoi_no_mikoto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/gifts).



I find it hard to put into words what I have experienced in my voyage. The things I saw, they line up with some of the oldest mythology, but at the same time they are so different. I am trying to recollect the events as they happened and trying not to be influenced by any superstition, but still, I may not succeed.

The news of the discovery of the Great Island caused excitement in Ransen. Some cats were talking about territorial expansion, new places to live, hunt and fish. Some were fascinated by the stories of giant ruins stretching from horizon to horizon. Some wanted to see for their own eyes the mysterious beasts that lived there. My decision to join the expedition was motivated partially by each of those reasons.

The voyage itself is not long when you know where to go and how to use the oceanic currents. The sailors saw them as a simple fact of life, something to be used. I, however realized that for such great masses of water to be moved at such speed, the total volume of the ocean needs to exceed the extent of the known world by several orders of magnitude. The thought made me feel uneasy. How much there is that we do not know? How many new things and new ways to kill us? Alas, curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought him back.

On our way we stopped at several small islands to rest at night and stock up on food and fuel in bases established by the sailors before. I admire those people. They took us so far while in our youth sea travel was unheard of. In a matter of days, after leaving a particularly large island, the Great Island became visible on the horizon. It was truly enormous, impressive even from such a distance, outshining what we used to consider the whole world not long ago. It was covered by gigantic mountains, with even taller mountains visible further inland. And, as we were told, giants lived there.

Instead of immediately sailing to the shore, our ship kept some distance for several hours, with dumbstruck first time visitors watching the scenery going on and on – massive ruins stretching along the shore and far inland, still unmistakably recognizable as cat-made structures despite the unknown amount of time that must have passed since they were last occupied. And also, we saw some of the local giants.

Don’t get too excited yet, I am talking about animals. During our whole voyage, we were frequently accompanied by the large fish-beasts, swimming alongside and around us in large families and jumping out of water. What were those acrobatics for? Were they welcoming us, inviting us to play, did they want to get a better look at creatures so strange to them? We have seen giant fish, tortoises with legs turned into flippers, giant sea birds, but the strangest creatures we discovered when we finally landed in what probably used to be a harbor once.

I wanted to explore the ruins further inland, said to be smaller but better preserved, but my companions insisted on staying close to the ship, just in case. I obeyed them at least for the time being. Where we landed the ruins were mostly giant piles of some material that didn’t seem quite like stones – in fact, the broken structures suggested that the entire constructions were made of single blocks of this material. How was it possible? I couldn’t find any other sign of the ancient occupants that close to the sea. However, I saw the famous Gray Beats.

Yes, they are indeed as large as the rumor says, however, they come in three kinds, each very different despite being seemingly related. The tallest one are taller than the highest building in Ransen, their shape too strange to describe in words. They have long legs, very large ears, incredibly long teeth they use to move giant trees at once, and a nose shaped like a tentacle and like one movable. The other two kinds are smaller but still massive – one has a single horn on its snout but its ears are small and the nose normal, while the other has neither horn, extreme teeth, strange nose nor large ears but lives in the water and can be dangerous despite meek appearance.

Smaller animals are however the most interesting. I observed many colorful birds, very different from those we know. While observing the birds I saw something bizarre, something I had hard time describing – a hunting cat. I call her a cat, but she wasn’t a person – she walked on four legs, didn’t have hands but clawed paws, and her face was beast-like. Her sudden appearance startled me and surprised this beast person, but instead of running or attacking she looked at me in surprise and then raised her tail in an unmistakable universal gesture of welcome.

She came near and I returned the gesture, giving her some of the food I brought with myself. She accepted the offering and asked for more, but upon realizing there’s no more food to be had there she took off and disappeared into the woods. I was left speechless. Have I just met our goddess? Why did she act that way, though? The island so ancient, I hoped, would provide some answers to the metaphysical questions, but it seemed that it only gave me more questions.

Finally, the most important discovery I’ve made, one I have not shared with the rest of the group, too shocked and too afraid that my companions, cats not at all subtle and more interested in eating new foods rather than studying the new land, would try to see it too and damage the site. After days upon days of staying in the same area I got fed up and explored further inland, walking towards the nearby large mountain. I survived the Void Forest, this new forest couldn’t be worse.

As I walked forward, the ruins turned smaller and smaller, but then they started to take shapes discernible as actual buildings, with mostly rotten wood replacing the strange stone as the main material. I started exploring around and soon enough I found several objects, some obvious daily life items, some of unknown purpose. And when I reached a landslide, I found a skull lying at the bottom.

I immediately jumped to explore it closer. The skull was shaped like a cat’s, but a lot larger, with surprisingly blunt teeth. When I looked around I found more bone fragments and some teeth, all blunt. I realized I was standing in a former graveyard. Then I saw a giant wooden casket partially sticking from the mud, surprisingly well preserved. Despite my senses yelled at me to run I came forward it and tried to open it – I wanted to see how the people of the island looked like.

Finally, the wood gave, and I was greeted with a sight of a complete skeleton. In life, the cat was a giant, maybe twice as tall as the Setsura cats. The skeleton’s teeth were blunt and I couldn’t see any remains of the claws or the tail. I initially thought they just rot away, but then I remembered the beast cat I encountered before, and I realized that I was looking not at a Ribika but at a Two Canes.

I ran to the ship as quickly as I could, terrified by the discovery. For the rest of our stay, I didn’t leave the camp, shaken. However, now that I could gather my thoughts and share them with you, I want to visit the island again. I want to find the Two Canes and try to discover what happened to them. I hope you will be able to accompany me this time.

I love you,

Konoe

**Author's Note:**

> Since the canon implies that the setting is futuristic post-apocalyptic Earth (that somehow got its rotation reversed), I was wondering what exactly Sisa may be. Judging from the map, the plot-specific area is surprisingly small, fitting a moderately sized island rather than a continent. Furthermore, how I interpreted the creation myth was that Ribika were created by humans from cats. From this, I embraced the possibility of them being closer in size to cats rather than humans, which would allow for the story to take place on a really small island. For the purpose of the story, all those head canons apply, and I decided to make Sisa a future Amami Oshima. The Great Island Konoe explores in the fic is Kyuushu, specifically the Kagoshima area, and the large mountain is Sakurajima. I assumed that after the disaster that killed humans at least some of the zoo animals survived and prospered in Japan alongside feral pets that still have the instinct to befriend humans – thus the presence of elephants, rhinos and hippos alongside feral cats. It’s been a few years since I’ve played the game, so I might have made some mistakes, for which I apologize!


End file.
